Current Events

I really like to run, here are a few of my best runs to date.:

I also bake cookies every week to distribute to the neighbors and for support group on Monday nights.

I have a YouTube Channel for baking – @Chris_Chernick_Baking

A sampling of my baking:

Left to Right – Applesauce Coookies, St Patrick’s Lemon Cookies, White Chocolate Cranberry Macadamia Cookies.

Second row: Peanut Butter Cookies, Butter Ring Cookies

Yesterday I participated in the Roxbury Library’s Arts Festival – together with my fellow Writer Group collegues

Follows are the three stories that I included in the above book:

CHRIS CHERNICK

1. A First Time Float

• The Encore Career

• Utopia / Heaveno

Chris Chernick
First North American Copyright

A First-Time Float

I went to my first parade when I was a kid. There were fire trucks, bands, and floats from the high school and other areas. When we moved to New Jersey, there were parades on Memorial Day here in town, but no floats.

It was many years later that I joined a committee to organize a more majestic type of parade.

What was to be the theme? I wondered. Someone suggested something like the floats in the Rose Bowl Parade. I thought there was a lot of money spent on that parade – money we didn’t have – but maybe we could use that parade for some float ideas…

Questions arose. Would we do a float with real flowers or artificial ones? Would there be music? How would we pull the float?

One of the members, Stephen, had a pick-up truck with a hitch that he said could tow the float, so that was one question solved.

Another member of the group, Theresa, said she and her husband had a trailer with a flat bed of plywood that we could build on.

We were on our way! Another member, Thomas, had spare lumber and shingles. We went to work and assembled a small shed-like structure with a window and a doorway. We painted shutters around the windows and the door frame. We put up planters and placed artificial flowers in them.

We had a battery-powered CD player, to provide dancing and jazz music on. I had some speakers that could be mounted on to the float as well.

We went to the thrift store and got some clothes that looked old, and we found an old banjo.

We were ready to rock and roll (even if that wasn’t the type of music we were playing)! We added a mix of real and artificial flowers around the trailer to cover up the metal frame.

All of us on the committee arrived a little after 8:00 a.m. the morning of the parade. Ours was the 6^th float right towards the middle. We were behind the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts so our music would not be drowned out by the high school band.

Once our part of the parade started moving, we turned up the music; one of the members strummed the banjo as if he were playing it. We all pretended we were singing and gave out candies to the kids lining the parade route.

We got many cheers along the way, and some of the kids walked up to get a closer look; we welcomed them and gave them extra candy.

At the end of the parade, we assembled in the parking lot of Horseshoe Lake. We had a nice lunch and then there were awards. We took 5th place out of ten floats! Right in the middle for our first time out. That was an accomplishment!

Maybe next time we’ll get some instruments and learn to play a song ourselves: we could get 1st place for that!

###

Chris Chernick
First North American Copyright

The Encore Career

Retirement – what does that mean? Early in my career it meant receiving a gold watch, maybe even a company party in honor of the retiree.

But time changes…

We have electronic smart watches nowadays, and so there’s no need for a watch you have to wind, unless you are a collector of watches or some other person who likes the wind-up kind. 

For me, retirement is another phase. Of life. It’s a wonderful time to explore new things, like the writing group I joined a few years ago, or volunteering to help other people.

So, I called retirement my Encore Career!

As I was preparing for retirement, I did not see a rocking chair or gold watch in my future. I went to a program at the library around 2018 where the various volunteer organizations in town presented their needs. The Social Services department said they needed drivers; I thought I could do that and contacted them the next day. That started my Monday, Wednesday, and Friday trips to Ashley’s Market to pick up excess milk and bread to bring to the food pantry.

During COVID, I asked the Social Services Department if anyone needed food shopping done for them. I started doing food shopping or a few women in town who lost the bus for shopping. That lasted until about a year when the bus returned.

There was another lady recently who could not go on the bus, so I did her food shopping for her until she fell ill and went into the hospital.

I partially retired in 2019 and fully retired in October 2021. While I will always value the friendships I made along the way and am proud of my work, I am also glad to be out of the corporate world of constant pressure, and cost cutting, and profit making. My profession as an actuary had been very stressful.

Of course, when you retire, you exchange those pressures for other pressures like finances, health issues, and adjustments when we lose our parents or other loved ones. However, we can use these experiences to understand the preciousness of life in ourselves and others.

One of my plans was to start writing; I started a blog The-Encore.blog and posted stories about what was going on in life.  The blog has expanded to also show our special occasions and photos from our trips.

I also like to run when I can, weather permitting. I have continued to run, around 3 to 5 miles per day for about 5 or 6 days a week. In the   I run on the treadmill instead of going outside in the cold.

If we are on a trip to a warm place during the colder times of the year, I usually run. For example, I ran along the beaches in Hawaii when we were there a few months ago.

I also like to bake. I bake cookies every week. Originally, I would bring those cookies to the support group I run herein town. After COVID, I started to deliver the cookies to the neighbors, which had the side benefit of my getting to know them better.

I started a YouTube channel to show people how to bake. It is fun and I enjoy sharing the many recipes I have for cookies. I can be located by my name or Chris_Chernick_Baking on YouTube.

I joined a men’s Bible study recently. It meets on Friday mornings, early so those who work can get to their jobs on time. It has been a wonderful experience for my walk with God.

Without the stress of work, I have read a variety of book genres. I seem to like mysteries the best, but a good biography is always close to the top of my list, especially about historical figures. I have read about Ulysses Grant, Lyndon Johnson, Franklin Roosevelt, and many others.

It is interesting to read about the motivations of these politicians and see how similar or different our views of the world would be.

When you retire, you can explore new things, or plant a garden, look at the wonder of God’s creation in your own backyard. As we approach the summer, I look forward to planting flowers around the house. This year I am going to plant vegetables in containers. The Community Garden just up the street – to which I belonged from its inception – was great but with our trips to the Outer Banks in the summer it was hard to keep a big garden going for the entire season.

Maybe someday in the future I will return to the community garden. It was fun while I was working and a good avenue to meet people and get gardening advice.

As I mentioned, I worked as an actuary for many years, and today I use those skills when I volunteer to help people struggling with understanding their pensions or have other things puzzling them related to benefits and retirement. That has kept me active in the field and helping people in this way is rewarding for me as well. It has been a dry period for a while, but it will pick up soon, I am sure.

So, each person is different, and their approach to retirement can have many facets. Some people just relax, some travel, some go on adventures, and some just stay close to home.  We have done a good amount of traveling since I retired, and it has reinforced for me that there is always an adventure around the corner or around the country or world. It is all there for us to capture.

###

Chris Chernick
First North American Copyright

UTOPIA /HEAVEN

I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve heard someone say, “Well, we don’t live in a perfect world.”To me, Utopia represents the idea of a perfect world with no pain, suffering, hunger, violence, inequality, or, of course, death. While this idea may fuel humanity’s greater aspirations, I do not think Utopia here on earth is possible.

As a Christian, I am reminded through The Bible that we don’t live in a perfect world, and nothing we do or attain here will change that. However, I also believe that the ultimate Utopia is Heaven. To me, and according to my faith, that means eternal life: living without pain or suffering like we have here on earth, and entrance to Heaven comes through the belief that Jesus came to save usfrom eternal separation from God.

A Bible verse that comes to mind reads, “But our citizenship is in Heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Philippians 3:20).

I believe that I will become a citizen of heaven when I die some day in the future, and according to the tenets of my faith, that is becauseI have accepted Jesus as my personal savior. It is not because I am a good person or have done good things, although Jesus taught us to do good for others and love our neighbor as ourselves.

Christians believe that Jesus chose His disciples from common people just like you and me, and he told them to follow him, which they did. Through his death on the cross and resurrection after three days, he took the sins of the world and gave the opportunity to those that believe in him to be forgiven of their sins regardless how bad they are or were.

Many faith traditions have a similar concept, and I wonder whether people of other faiths would feel like I do about the difference between Utopia and Heaven. We live in a tumultuous world, and while I believe there’s a lot that people can improve if they come together, I also believe that a Utopia in this world is unattainable. However, people of different backgrounds and traditions can work together to make the world a better, if still imperfect place.

###

I hope you have enjoyed my blog and the variety things I am interested in…..

Remember – movement is good for your health, you do not have to run any type of movement is good for you.

I praise the Lo1rd for the ability to run and thank him for saving me…..

God Bless you